Mardi Gras
SS Mardi Gras(The Former RMS Empress of Canada)was an ocean liner built in 1961 by Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker-on-Tyne, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd.. This ship, the third CP vessel to be named Empress of Canada, regularly traversed the transatlantic route between Liverpool and Canada for the next decade. Although Canadian Pacific Railways was incorporated in Canada, the Atlantic (and pre-war Pacific) liners were owned and operated by the British registered subsidiary Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. and were always British flagged and manned and therefore Empress of Canada was not the flagship of the Canadian Merchant Marine. Carnival Cruises Times It was thought that Empress of Canada might be sold to the Shaw Savill Line, to be renamed Dominion Monarch alongside her former fleet mate Empress of England, which had become Shaw Savill's Ocean Monarch, but the sale did not take place. Instead she was sold in January 1972 to Carnival Cruise Lines and after a few internal changes and an update on her color schemes she was put back into service as Mardi Gras, re-registered in Panama and measuring 18,261 GRT (1,826,100 cu ft; 51,710 m3) under Panamanian measurement rules (which saved on dock dues), Carnival advertised her however as "27,000 tons of fun!". Carnival's first ship, she left Tilbury on February 26th 1972 for Miami and her new life as a Carnival "fun ship". She sailed for her new owners until 1993, joined in 1975 by her near sister Empress of Britain. After Carnival By 1993 Carnival wanted to update their fleet by ordering new tonnage so she was sold to Epirotiki in that year, and was renamed Olympic, Star of Texas, Lucky Star and finally Apollon. In 1995 Epirotiki merged its operations with Sun Line, creating a new company named Royal Olympic Cruise Lines. For a while she sailed for this line and was later chartered by Direct Cruises (division of Direct Holidays) for voyages around the United Kingdom. Direct Holidays was purchased by the tour operator Airtours in 1999 (later MyTravel then Thomas Cook). Coincidentally perhaps, around this time Carnival acquired a share of Airtours plc (around 23%) – though primarily to secure distribution of the Carnival brand through the tour operator. This was a relatively short lived liaison. A quid-pro-quo agreement was made between Royal Olympic and Airtours to scrap the five-year Apollon charter agreement and in 2000 all voyages planned for the vessel were cancelled and she was returned to Greece where she was laid up. This agreement saw the Airtours vessel MS Seawing transferred from Airtours Sun Cruises (the Airtours in-house cruise division) management to Royal Olympic under a 3rd party management agreement. This agreement also included an option to purchase at the end of the newly agreed management deal. Scrapping In 2001 the Apollon was put back in service for three- and four-day cruises out of Piraeus due to late delivery of Olympic Explorer. She operated alongside the new Olympic Countess before being laid up for good in 2003. She was sold for scrap later the same year, having been in service for 42 years. Gallery RMS_Empress_of_Canada_(1961)_(cropped).jpg|SS Mardi Gras as The RMS Empress of Canada MV_Mardi_Gras_-_Montreal,_1979.jpg|The SS Mardi Gras -Carnivale-_-_Miami,_1984.jpg|The Former SS Empress of Britan as The SS Carnivale